As CBD products continue to be legalized across the world, many new companies are emerging to meet the growing demand from both physical dispensaries and online CBD businesses. While some companies follow the strictest quality standards and are able to produce premium products, others continue using less recommended methods during their growth, harvesting or extraction processes.
If you are planning to purchase your own CBD tinctures, edibles or vapes, doing some research on the methods and processes used by each company is important. In order to ensure you will receive high-quality products every time it is a good idea to verify the following three characteristics:
1) Organic Growing
Just as with any other plant or vegetable, organic growing methods provide much better hemp plants and therefore allows for the production of better CBD extracts. Nowadays, it is possible to find certified organic CBD products online and at physical dispensaries in areas where cannabidiol is legal.
One of the main benefits of organic growing methods comes from the fact that they are able to preserve intact all the natural components of hemp, including cannabidiol and thousands of different terpenes. Hemp plants grown with the help of pesticides and other artificial chemicals might produce larger yields, but they cannot be used to manufacture high-quality extracts.
Organic CBD oil is certainly more expensive than traditional tinctures, but for users wanting to enjoy the entire range of beneficial properties of hemp, it is certainly a good investment.
2) Clean Extraction
After the hemp plants have been grown and harvested, it is necessary to use an extraction technique to isolate the CBD oil from the leaves and flowers. There are tenths of different extraction methods which can be used for this purpose, but not all of them are able to maintain the entire range of beneficial components intact.
When looking for a high quality CBD extract, make sure to avoid oils and tinctures extracted with alcohol or extreme heat. These products might be significantly cheaper, but their results are mostly unsatisfactory, as the terpenes and cannabinoids present in the hemp plant cannot survive extreme temperatures or aggressive solvents.
Nowadays, the best extraction methods which are able to keep all cannabinoids and terpenes intact are those using CO2. The drawback is that these methods require large investments in expensive machinery, which can increase the price of the final product.
3) Full Spectrum
While the decision to buy CBD isolates or full spectrum products is a personal one, users who want to enjoy the entire range of benefits that cannabidiol and terpenes can bring to their health are recommended to buy full spectrum tinctures. In the CBD industry, the term “entourage effect” is used to refer to the way in which the components of the hemp plant come together to potentiate each other’s effects and provide optimal results.
CBD isolates, on the other hand, are recommended only for persons who explicitly decide not to consume any other cannabinoid apart from CBD. If you are suffering from stress, anxiety, pain or other generalized conditions, full-spectrum or broad-spectrum cannabidiol tinctures are the best options.
